Ankle Fitness Trackers

The automatic reflex is to wear a fitness tracker on the wrist so that it may measure heart rate but also so that we may look at the data that it is capturing without using an app. The issue with this habit is that we need to stop wearing a classic watch, as a result.

Fitness trackers want to be worn non-stop for between 3 days to four weeks before giving proper usable data as is the case with the Epix Gen 2 but also all Apple Watches, Garmin devices, Suunto and others.

Out of curiousity I have been playing with the Xiaomi Fitness bands but found that if I wore it next to another watch it would clank against another watch when my wrist moved.

By moving it to the ankle it is out of sight and out of mind. It tracks, without drawing attention to itself, especially in the winter months.

With an Apple watch, and Garmin watches you do not have this option because the wrist straps are too short, and the material too hard to be comfortable on the ankle.

Before writing this article I did a quick search, to see whether there are ankle fitness trackers and the answer is “no” but there are straps that are designed to fit an ankle better than a watch strap. These are bands made of soft material, that behave and feel more like socks than watch straps.

When worn on an ankle a xiaomi smart band 7 and 8 will track heart rate and step count with ease so it’s doable but it would feel more comfortable with a specialist strap.If you sit cross legged it is not comfortable.

And finally, although it does work with normal straps it does not feel comfortable. It feels more comfortable to wear such devices the conventional way.